The Sunday News Recap: I'll have three fingers of Glenlivet, with a little bit of pepper…and some cheese.

by Ryan Arthur

It’s May, and this is the Sunday News Recap. Here’s what we do: we've got the last seven days worth of reviews and features at HBS/eFC, as well as box office numbers for the weekend, and a preview of films, DVDs and features for the week ahead. How’s THAT for diversity!?! I’m Ryan, and I could be wrong, but I believe, uh, diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era. Yes. Let’s get started.

You can access more features from a particular writer by clicking on his or her name. Want more features, coverage, interviews and the like? Click on the More option, found directly below the article title. Want more features, period? Check out the database. Don't know what you want? Try searching the database.Shameless Self-Promotion: Radio Ga-Ga

Hey! We've got our own radio station! Yes, it's true: you can now listen to Hollywood Bitchslap Radio online. We specialize in movie soundtracks, with specialty programming, movie news and opinion thrown in. It's fun, (and it's free!) but it's still a work in progress, so tell us what you like, what you don't like, and what you'd like to hear. All you need is an mp3 player and a healthy love of film, just like us.

Scott Weinberg is also a regular guest on JD Balart's American Radio Journal on WMET 1160 AM in Washington, DC. Scott's segment airs every Friday afternoon from 1:30pm to 2:00pm, DC time (Eastern).

Loey Lockerby is a regular guest on The Walt Bodine Show on KCUR 89.3 FM in Kansas City. Loey appears with The Movie Critics every other Friday during the show, which runs every weekday from 10:00am to 11:00am, Kansas City time (Central).

Chris Parry, Erik Childress and Scott Weinberg are guests on Gaalen Engen's Fellini Is King on CJSF 90.1 FM in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The show airs every Sunday from 11:00am to 1:00pm, Vancouver (Pacific) time.

Ryan Arthur does entertainment news on Gary O'Brien And Friends on WDWS 1400 AM in Champaign, Illinois. I'm on Monday through Friday from 2:40pm to 3:00pm, Central time.

Listen to us, if you get the chance!”Your job is to rate movies on a scale from ‘good’ to ‘excellent.’” - The Criticwatch Update

Opening this Friday is Poseidon, and the Quote Whores are out in force:

“It’s a blast. Poseidon hits the action button and never stops!” – Peter Travers“Awesome! The most amazing images you’ll see on the big screen this summer!” – Mark S. Allen“A terror-drenched thrill-ride full of action and suspense.” – Shawn Edwards“An edge-of-your-seat, non-stop adventure that will leave you breathless.” – Tony Toscano

Visit Criticwatch. Because there’s got to be a morning after.”They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!”

* Rhona Mitra is joining Mark Wahlberg and Michael Pena in The Shooter, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Wahlberg plays a marksman who is double-crossed and framed for a presidential assassination he was trying to prevent. He is forced to go on the run while trying to track down the real killer and find out who betrayed him. Mitra plays an FBI agent tracking Wahlberg. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Sam Gamgee and Curly Bill in the same movie? Sean Astin and Powers Boothe are set to star in The Final Season, an independent sports drama to be directed by David M. Evans. The project is based on the true story of the Norway, Iowa, high school baseball team that overcame daunting odds to become a powerhouse in the sport for more than two decades. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Two additions to Peter Berg’s The Kingdom: Chris Cooper has joined the already-cast Jamie Foxx in the drama. Cooper and Foxx play part of an FBI team that goes into a Middle Eastern country to investigate a terrorist bombing in one of the compounds that houses western workers. Jennifer Garner is in talks to join the cast as well. Filming starts in June. (source: Variety, Hollywood Reporter)

* Chris Cooper is also joining Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson and Rachel McAdams in Marriage, directed by Ira Sachs. The drama, set during the 1940s, concerns a married man who cheats and then decides to kill his wife to spare her the shame of going through a divorce. (source: Variety)

* Tom Arnold, serious actor: Arnold will star with Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac in the currently-filming P.D.R.. Howard plays Jim Ellis, who started a black swim team in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Philadelphia in the 1970s. Arnold will play the racist swim coach of the rival team. Sunu Gonera is directing. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Speaking of Terrence Howard, he and Richard Gere are in talks to star in Spring Break In Bosnia, based on Scott Anderson’s Esquire article. Richard Shepard (The Matador) adapted Anderson’s story for the screen, in which Anderson recounted the half-hearted attempt he and fellow journalists Sebastian Junger and John Falk made at corralling an alleged Bosnian war criminal. The trio found themselves in a predicament when they were identified as a CIA hit squad. Filming will start this summer. (source: Variety)

* Here’s a dream pairing: Jack Black will star in Be Kind Rewind for director Michel Gondry. Black will star as a man who becomes accidentally magnetized while trying to sabotage a power plant. His magnetic field erases all the tapes in the video store where his best friend works. To save the store, the duo re-enact and re-film every movie that its single loyal customer, an elderly woman, rents. Titles that Black’s character will apparently recreate include Robocop, Back To The Future, Rush Hour and The Lion King. Awesome. (source: Variety)

* If Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector wasn’t bad enough, I give you Delta Farce. Larry The Cable Guy and Bill Engvall will star with a third “Blue Collar” standup comic in the alleged comedy, playing Army reservists bound for Iraq who are mistakenly dropped into Mexico and liberate a small village from marauders. C. B. Harding is directing. If you pay money to see this film I hope someone punches you in the jugular. Repeatedly. (source: Variety)

* Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn will star with Emile Hirschin the Sean Penn-directed Into The Wild. Hisch plays Christopher McCandless, who graduated from college in 1992, abandoned his possessions and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness and return to nature. He died four months later in an abandoned bus at a remote campsite. Keener's character picks up the hitchhiker and takes him in as a surrogate son, while Vaughn will play a tow-truck driver whom Hirsch's character meets on the road. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Parker Posey, Gena Rowlands, Jeanne Moreau and Drea de Matteo are set to star in Zoe Cassavetes’ Broken English. In the comedy, Posey plays a New Yorker who meets a mysterious Frenchman, causing her to rethink her cynical outlook on love. Filming is underway now. (source: Variety)

* Holly Hunter is joining Gavin Rossdale, Rupert Evans, Margo Stiley and Gordon Macdonald in the erotic ghost story Frost Flowers. Every movie description would be better if it featured “erotic” at the beginning. Hunter will play Cora, a woman from the spirit world who finds herself pregnant with the child of successful young actor David, who has crossed the line and finds that he has the powers to touch and see Cora. The catch is that their love can only be reconciled with David's death in exchange for the love and life of their child. Filming starts this October with Andrea Vecchiato directing. (source: Production Weekly)

* The Wild Things of Where The Wild Things Are have their voices: Benicio Del Toro, Forest Whitaker, Michelle Williams, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Noonan and Michael Berry will voice the creatures in the film that young Max encounters after he is punished for misbehaving. The boy hasn’t been cast yet, but Catherine Keener will play his mother. The creatures will likely be a mix of animation and puppetry filmed with the live-action Max. (source: Variety)

* Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) will star as Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn in Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching, which starts filming in June. The film will focus on the creation of “The Nightwatch,”one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings, and the effect it had on his private life. Sarah Polley and Minnie Driver also star. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Catherine Zeta-Jones is in talks to join Guy Pearce in Death Defying Acts. The film is set in 1926, during which Harry Houdini (Pearce) was on tour, and focuses on a passionate affair that he enters into with an exotic psychic (Zeta-Jones). Gillian Armstrong directs, with filming starting later this summer. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* It’ll be Luke Wilson and Sarah Jessica Parker in the thriller Vacancy. The pair will play a couple who check into a motel and, unaware there's a hidden camera, become the subjects of a snuff film. Mark L. Smith wrote the script. (source: Variety)

* Wild Hogs has its female leads: Tichina Arnold and Jill Hennessy are on board the Walt Becker-directed comedy. John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy star as a group of frustrated, middle-age suburban biker wannabes who hit the open road in search of adventure, only to encounter a rough and tumble New Mexico biker gang called the Del Fuegos. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Kyle Newman will direct Fox Atomic’s Revenge Of The Nerds remake. Adam F. Goldberg, who worked with Newman on the upcoming Fanboys, is rewriting the script. McG and David Manpearl are producing. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Sam Raimi and Josh Donen will produce an updated version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea for New Line. Craig Titley’s pitch for the project would look more closely into the background of Captain Nemo as well as that of his prisoners aboard the Nautilus than previous adaptations of the Jules Verne novel. (source: Variety)

* Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) will direct Rendition, a Middle-Eastern political thriller based on a Kelly Sane spec script. The story centers on a CIA analyst based in Cairo who finds his world spinning out of control after he witnesses the interrogation of a foreign national by the Egyptian secret police. (source: Variety)

* RV director Barry Sonnenfeld is in negotiations to direct Andrew Henry’s Meadow for 20th Century Fox. The project, developed by Zach and Adam Braff, is based on Doris Burn’s classic children’s book. Adam Braff wrote the screenplay, and Zach Braff, who was originally set to direct, will executive produce. Doris Burn's son, Mark, inspired the story, “which was written during the period the family lived on Waldron Island in the San Juan Archipelago in Washington. The Pacific Coast island had no electricity, running water, telephones or stores. The film will center on a boy inventor who escapes suburbia to an idyllic meadow, where he builds a utopia in the trees. There he becomes a reluctant hero who leads a band of fellow outcasts on a mission to awaken their families before it's too late.” Barry Sonnenfeld still gets to direct after RV? (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Warner Bros. is developing The Infiltrator, based on a Matthew Teague article in Atlantic Monthly. The article appeared in the April issue of the magazine, and concerns the campaign by British intelligence to undermine the Irish Republican Army by planting spies in top positions. The program helped the British negate much of the terrorist activity planned by the IRA, but at a high price. Guymon Casady, Darin Friedman, Brad Simpson, Leonardo DiCaprio and David Benioff will produce, with DiCaprio having the option to star. Benioff will supervise a screenwriter. (source: Variety)

* Mark Steilen will direct the road trip comedy Weiners, based on a Gabe Grifoni and Suzanne Francis screenplay. Gregory Smith, Kenan Thompson, Zachary Levi and Fran Kranz will star in the film, “which revolves around best friends who travel across the country in a homemade weinermobile to face their inner demons and battle a nefarious talk show host.” (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Looks like the Silver Surfer will play an important part in Fantastic Four 2, which is currently in development at 20th Century Fox. The studio is expected to choose between one of two scripts – one from Mark Frost (who worked on the first Fantastic Four) and Don Payne, writer on the upcoming My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Payne’s script, which is reportedly the frontrunner, features the Surfer in a prominent role. (source: Variety)

* How about a sequel to Dracula? Jan de Bont's Blue Tulip Productions has teamed with Atchity Entertainment on the feature, which will be the first officially-sanctioned sequel to the Bram Stoker novel. The project, called The Un-Dead, after the subtitle of Stoker’s novel, was written by Ian Holt and is set 25 years after that book's events. All the surviving protagonists, including Jonathan and Mina Harker and Professor Van Helsing, appear, along with Inspector Cotford, a character cut from the original manuscript, facing Dracula once again. Holt’s screenplay has been officially recognized by the Stoker family, and is the first adaptation to receive approval since the 1931 film. (source: Fangoria)

* De Bont, by the way, will direct Stopping Power for Intermedia, QED and action concept. Richard Shepard is revising Eric Red’s script about a test pilot in Berlin who is on vacation with his daughter and girlfriend when their RV is hijacked at a gas station…with the daughter still inside. Filming will start this September. (source: Variety)

* Saw director James Wan will step behind the camera for Death Sentence, written by Ian Jeffers and based on Brian Garfield’s novel. The story “centers on a father out for revenge after his family is attacked in a senseless and heinous gang-initiation crime. The father enacts a death sentence on each perpetrator involved with the crime.” Garfield also wrote Death Wish, which spawned the series of Charles Bronson movies. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Travis Beacham has been hired by Warner Bros. to write the script for the studio’s remake of Clash Of The Titans. Beacham says his version will be “darker and more realistic” than the MGM original. The storyline will still revolve around Perseus' journey to save the Princess Andromeda, during which he must complete various tasks set out by Zeus, including capturing Pegasus and slaying Medusa. (source: Variety)* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *"Great movie, huh? So refreshing to see something like this after all these...cop movies and, you know, things we do. Maybe we'll do a remake of this!"

Here is the preliminary top ten for the weekend. Estimates are taken from Box Office Mojo.com and are rounded up, where applicable.

Erik Childress also gives you updates and additions in Criticwatch on Friday, too.

Don't forget to visit the Contest page for your chance to win DVDs and other assorted movie-related swag from HBS/eFC.

We'll also have some additional features and editorials throughout the week, and I'll have your Recap ready to go on Sunday.Another Recap’s in the books, and with that, we’re taking the rest of the day off. I do want to thank you for sticking with me the last month and a half or so, where we’ve been a little more streamlined. I won’t bore you with the details as to why I had our setup that way, and instead just say that life sometimes gets in the way of this, which – believe it or not – I do for fun. So thank you once again for your patience and understanding. At any rate, we’ll be back next Sunday, so while you’re here, please give a listen to Hollywood Bitchslap Radio, take a look at our previous Recaps and join and visit our forums, as well. You won’t regret it, unless you do. Thanks for reading, and as always, your feedback is appreciated.